Use trade marks in your business

What is a trade mark?

A trade mark can be seen as a badge of origin for a business. It provides a distinctive way of representing your goods or services that sets them apart from those of other traders. It is a valuable piece of intellectual property and can play an important role in your marketing and branding activities.

A trade mark can be:

• a word, phrase or slogan
• a logo or symbol
• a sign or form of packaging
• a sound or jingle
• a colour
• a gesture
• a brand name
• your company name

A trade mark must be distinctive for the goods and services you use it for. And it mustn't mislead people about the nature of your products or services.

Common law may give some trade mark protection automatically, provided sufficient trading reputation and goodwill have been built up in a mark. But this is likely to be difficult and costly to defend against infringement.

You should consider registering your trade mark for added protection. If you want to register a trade mark in the UK it must be possible to represent it in words and pictures.

Registering a trade mark costs money and you need to get it right. But registration establishes in law that your mark:

• is a trade mark
• belongs to you alone

You then have an automatic right to sue anybody who infringes it. In fact, just registering a trade mark can serve as a deterrent to people who might otherwise infringe it.

Read about trade mark forms and fees on the Intellectual Property Office website - Opens in a new window.

Registering your trade mark can also help you profit by allowing you to sell or license it like any other piece of property. See the page in this guide on how to defend your trade mark.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• What is a trade mark?
• How to register a trade mark
• Registering a trade mark outside the UK
• Defend your trade mark
• Respect other people's trade marks
• Trade marks and domain names
• Here's how I deal with trade mark infringements
• Here's how I protected my idea with a trade mark (Flash video)

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